PHOENIX -- The D-backs beat the Pirates, 11-1, on Wednesday afternoon at Chase Field to win the three-game series, but now they have to hope they haven’t lost their ace.\n\n
When Greinke first felt the discomfort on his second-last pitch, his first thought was that it was his oblique muscle, which forced him to miss significant time in 2016.\n\n“I didn’t want to push it and hopefully it wouldn’t be as bad \\[as his oblique injury\\],” Greinke said. “But it seems to be in a different spot. Last time it was six weeks, so hopefully this won’t even be six days.”\n\nGreinke tweaked his back a bit in the fourth inning when he turned to take a pitch while at the plate. He stretched a bit and remained in the game to draw a walk, steal a base and score a run without any further issue from the back.\n\nThe back thing has happened a bunch for Greinke this season, but he said that “it gets better after two seconds usually.”
So just how concerned is Lovullo about Greinke’s abdominal injury?\n\n“It’s hard to say right now,” he said. “You’re asking me and I’m always in the clouds and optimistic about things. I’m going to, obviously, hope for the absolute best.”\n\nThe D-backs certainly have to hope that Greinke does not have to miss any significant time, as he is in the midst of another outstanding season.\n\nAfter struggling on Opening Day against the Dodgers when he allowed seven runs in 3 2/3 innings, Greinke has gone 6-0 with a 1.92 ERA.\n\nIt was vintage Greinke on Wednesday, as he allowed just one Bucs hitter to advance as far as second base. That was Josh Bell, who doubled in the second and advanced to third on a groundout. Greinke did not allow a walk and struck out five.
“He means so much to this rotation,” Lovullo said. “I went to bed last night thinking, ‘Zack’s throwing in a really, really important baseball game and we’re going to get the absolute best effort from him and it’s going to be very, very efficient.’ He’s our guy and we know that.”\n\nIt was a bad day overall on the injury front for Arizona. In addition to Greinke, left fielder
That, Lovullo said, did not appear to be serious. Peralta is expected to be fine with some therapy in the training room.\n\nMeanwhile, right-hander